Tag: Uranium

Iran’s approach to negotiating with the United States and five other international parties currently displaying a keen interest in how Tehran conducts its nuclear program isn’t informed only by concerns about the future of that program in and of itself.

There is a vast military complex deep in the hills of eastern Tennessee called “Y-12.” This is where all of the highly enriched uranium is produced and stored for the production of the U.S. nuclear-warhead arsenal.

Iran’s nuclear program has again become a source of controversy on the global stage, and now Yukiya Amano, the top-ranking official in the United Nations’ nuclear oversight organization, has added his voice to the chorus of concerns.

Sister Megan Rice, a Roman Catholic nun, could be imprisoned for up to 30 years after she and two other activists protested at a nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The Y-12 facility they were peacefully demonstrating at is the main source of highly enriched uranium in the U.S.

Days before talks with Western powers over its disputed nuclear program, Iran reports that it has discovered new deposits of raw uranium and identified sites suitable for 16 more nuclear power stations.

For the first time, a top Iranian politician has said that his government has the knowledge, skills and technology needed to produce the enriched uranium used in atomic bombs, but that it will never do so.

After reaffirming his support of Israel at an AIPAC conference on Sunday, President Obama met on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, where one particular issue loomed large: Iran.

President Obama’s team of top diplomats didn’t wait long to respond to the report that an Iranian nuclear scientist died in a car explosion Wednesday. Later that day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared the U.S. was in no way involved in the death by detonation of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan.

Another story has emerged to further make the headline-ready case that tensions are ratcheting up between Tehran and Washington, this time from the espionage department. On Monday, news hit the wires that an Iranian court had sentenced 28-year-old Amir Mirzaei Hekmati to death for allegedly spying for the CIA.

This information, we should note, comes from Iran’s state-sponsored news agency, but officials in Tehran said Wednesday they had arrested as many as 12 CIA agents who had been working undercover to gather intelligence about the Iranian nuclear program and what the government planned to do with it.

Last week, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency expressed “serious concerns” over Iran’s nuclear program in a strongly worded report that claimed that there is evidence that Iran might be developing an atomic weapon. This is the stuff of “fantasyland,” according to The New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh.

Despite the Iranian government’s insistence to the contrary, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog group, the IAEA, remains suspicious about Tehran’s intentions for the country’s nuclear program, passing a resolution Friday registering its “deep and increasing concern” that Iran is working on a nuclear weapon.

In a confidential report released Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency says it has received new information that suggests Iran may be trying to develop a nuclear-armed missile, marking a crucial point in the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the U.N.

Iran has officially declared that it has created its first domestically produced piece of raw uranium, otherwise deceptively known as non-edible yellowcake, and has subsequently delivered that uranium to a plant for enrichment.

Are you in the market for some highly enriched uranium? If so, then look no further than the exquisite black markets of Georgia, where evidence in a secret trial has shed light on smuggled uranium that is allegedly for sale in the former Soviet satellite state.

From stinking up his hotel with food to decrying U.S. involvement in 9/11, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made quite the splash in New York this week. And now Ahmadinejad has served up a surprise by declaring his country would consider ending uranium enrichment.

Drum roll, please. After 36 years in the making and with great help from Russia in its construction, Iran held a ceremony Saturday to mark the opening of the country’s first nuclear power plant. The event marked the beginning of the transfer of uranium fuel rods into the plant, which aims to start producing electricity later this year.

After 40 years and countless international scoldings, Russia has announced it will begin loading uranium-packed fuel rods into Iran’s first nuclear power plant, officially classifying the reactor as a “nuclear installation.”

One video shows a man who may well be Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri claiming that he was abducted by Americans and is now being held in Tucson, Ariz.—in which case, whoever kidnapped him should make sure he has the right papers. (continued)

After months of negotiations between the U.S. and other members of the United Nations Security Council, as well as push-back from Russia and China in particular, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that ... (continued)

Score one for President Barack Obama’s nuclear summit. The White House announced Monday that Ukraine will give up its entire stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 2012 and convert its research reactors to stop producing the stuff.

After days of confusion over whether or not Iran would reopen negotiations regarding its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered his country’s atomic energy agency to begin producing uranium for a medical reactor in Tehran. The United States quickly expressed disappointment over the announcement.

Iran’s launching of a new rocket Wednesday raised concerns in the U.S. that Tehran might have plans in the works beyond a patriotic show of space prowess (read: nuclear ambitions). Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is claiming that he’s open to talks about enriching Iranian uranium outside his country.

Iran seems to enjoy its nuclear swagger. Tehran has now approved construction of 10 uranium enrichment plants, a remarkable development given that a U.N. watchdog agency demanded last week that Iran cease construction of a previously secret enrichment facility.

Iran has announced it will conduct a weeklong round of air defense war games centered on the country’s nuclear sites as Western powers, especially the U.S., turn up the heat over Tehran’s nuclear program.

President Barack Obama has signaled an escalation in the ongoing nuclear dispute with Iran, warning that punitive measures could come soon after Tehran rejected a proposal to send its enriched uranium to Russia or France for further processing.

The IAEA announced it has received Iran’s reply to a U.N.-backed proposal to send that country’s enriched uranium abroad to be turned into fuel rods—not weapons. The reply, which remains secret, is expected to agree to the overall framework of the proposal while demanding significant changes.

The continuing drama surrounding Iran’s nuclear program took a daring turn earlier this month when the U.S. revealed the existence of a secret uranium enrichment plant. Now U.N. inspectors have checked out that plant, and will do so again in the next couple days.

Following Thursday’s U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at halting nuclear proliferation, President Obama announced Friday that Iran has concealed a partly built second uranium enrichment plant. The Iranians admitted existence of the plant but asserted that it would be used only for peaceful purposes.

During his quick jaunt to Paris on Friday, Barack Obama sent a direct message to Iran, cautioning it to stop enriching uranium or “the pressure ... is only going to build.” Obama had the chance to chat briefly with President Nicolas Sarkozy, who told him that the French would be “delighted” if he won in November’s election.

An Israeli official was quoted Friday as saying that “attacking Iran in order to stop its nuclear plans will be unavoidable,” a remark that may further escalate tensions between the two countries as leaders continue to lob rhetorical digs at each other.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert issued a warning across the ocean to Iran during a visit to Washington Tuesday, urging the international community to convince Tehran that pursuing a nuclear weapons program would be a really, really bad idea.

Iran’s nuclear program is once again raising concerns among members of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who claim in a new report that, despite earlier signs of cooperation this year, Tehran is leaving key questions unanswered about possible plans to ramp up its uranium enrichment capabilities by the end of this summer.

This past week, Syria made headlines not once but twice. One story implicates the country in enriching uranium and says that the CIA confirmed to Congress that the target of a mysterious Israeli air raid in northern Syria on Sept. 6, 2007, was a reactor built with North Korean help.

Iranian President and up-and-coming schoolyard brawler Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared in a televised address Wednesday his country’s willingness to “bloody the enemy’s nose” in order to defend its national sovereignty. At issue is Iran’s controversial nuclear program, which Ahmadinejad has declared is negotiable only with U.N. nuclear officials, not the politicized Security Council.

The name Frank Giustra may not ring any bells with those outside the international mining industry, but Thursday’s New York Times brings Giustra (pictured with Clinton) out of relative obscurity into sharp focus with its startling report about the Canadian entrepreneur, who boldly inserted himself into the uranium business in Kazakhstan (!) and into Bill Clinton’s inner circle.

A new report released by American intelligence officials profoundly contradicts President Bush’s claims on the Iran nuclear threat and casts his “World War III” fear-mongering in a dubious light. The National Intelligence Estimate’s declassified assessment, compiled from 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, says Iran actually halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 “in response to international pressure.”

Iran is another step closer to reaching its long-term nuclear goals, now that 3,000 centrifuges are up and running as part of its uranium enrichment program. Some experts in the West say 3,000 centrifuges technically could be sufficient to produce a nuclear weapon within a year.

Continuing to broadcast a clear message of disapproval to the U.S. regarding its foreign policy and commercial interests abroad, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran on Tuesday to discuss Iran’s nuclear program and to present a unified front against Washington’s possible plans vis-à-vis Iran.

If the Bush administration is now in peacenik mode with North Korea, why not more aggressively follow the diplomatic track with Iran? As a result of a startling turnabout by an administration committed to wage war against “rogue nations,” it turns out offers of aid and diplomatic recognition might work wonders in stemming the spread of the nuclear threat.

A report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency reveals that Iran is moving forward with its nuclear program, in defiance of sanctions imposed in March by the United Nations. The watchdog agency says Tehran is obstructing the IAEA’s investigative efforts to monitor suspicious nuclear activities, according to the BBC.

Relations between the U.S. and Iran are shifting as U.N. inspectors discover that Iran’s uranium enrichment program appears to be further along than previously believed. These new developments only underscore the increasing volatility in the very region the American invasion of Iraq was supposed to secure, and they put the Bush administration in a codependent relationship with Iran’s ruling regime.

The U.S. and three European allies may seek a range of sanctions against Iran including travel restrictions on Iranian leaders and limitations on access to global financial markets. However, according to the NYT, a recent report by the IAEA might hamper the sanctions effort. The report says Iran is making slow progress and has not increased its rate of production of enriched uranium, and that the purity of the uranium would only be useful for power plants, not weapons.

A number of American troops from the same unit in Iraq recently discovered they were all suffering from a mysterious set of illnesses. Though their doctors couldn?t determine the source of the sickness, the soldiers came to believe their exposure to depleted uranium munitions was to blame, and decided to sue the U.S. Army.

The president told federal investigators that he ordered Vice President Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter the allegations made by former Ambassador Joe Wilson that the White House had misrepresented intelligence to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with Bush’s statement, as quoted by Murray Waas of the National Journal.

If this story is correct, this not only links Bush with the CIA leak case, it puts him squarely at its helm.

Sec. of State Rice said America will join Europe in direct talks if Iran suspends its programs to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel. It’s a dramatic about-face, and comes a mere three weeks after the Iranian president sent a personal letter to Bush—the first direct communication between the two countries in over 20 years.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has disclosed handwritten notes by the vice president that ask whether former Ambassador Joe Wilson was sent to Niger on a “junket” by his wife. The notes appear on a copy of Wilson’s N.Y. Times Op-Ed piece that kicked off the controversy. (via Huff Po)

Remember Valerie Plame Wilson? Well, she was apparently working on Iran when she was outed as a CIA agent by Robert Novak, and the outing allegedly damaged America’s ability to track Iran’s nuclear ambitions.